The end of the long-running "Play for Today" series in 1984 did not mark the end of the BBC's commitment to one-off television dramas. (That end was to come around a decade later, in the late nineties). Its replacement was "Screen Two", a series of television films mainly shot on location and influenced by the "Film Four" series produced by Channel Four, whereas "Plays for Today" had, as the title suggests, been television plays rather than films, mostly filmed in a studio. "Play for Today" had been screened on BBC1, but "Screen Two" was moved to BBC2, hence the name. In the seventies and eighties the two channels had quite separate identities, BBC1 being the channel for general entertainment whereas BBC2 tended to show the Beeb's more highbrow and intellectual offerings. Somebody obviously thought that serious drama belonged in the latter category. (BBC1 was later to start its own "Screen One" series, possibly because the demarcation lines between the channels were starting to break down).
"East of Ipswich" is a drama from the third series of "Screen Two" in 1987. It was written by the former Python Michael Palin, who claimed it was based on memories of his childhood holidays in the 1950s. During this period few people could afford a holiday abroad, so they made their way to Britain's seaside resort, often staying. In boarding houses as a cheaper alternative to hotels. 17-year-old Richard is taken, unwillingly, to the Suffolk coastal town of Southwold, here disguised under the fictitious name of Easton. Richard would much rather go to the family's normal destination of Torquay, a larger resort which at this period would probably have offered more in the way of entertainment, but but his parents insist on a change from their normal routine.
And Easton turns out to be just as boring as Richard feared it would. There are no facilities for young people and little to do except sit on the beach or attend the functions organised by the local vicar, a well-meaning but dull and patronising individual, for the church youth group. The family's boarding house is run by Miss Wilbraham, a domineering elderly lady who has evidently never heard of the maxim that the customer is always right; in her view it is Miss Wilbraham who is always right, and her customers are expected to comply with her strict rules.
Richard's opinion of Easton, however, improves when he realises that he can use his holiday as an opportunity to pick up girls. He befriends Edwin, another boy of the same age staying in the same boarding house and they go on a double date with the twin daughters of the vicar. This is not very satisfactory, as the girls are just as worthy and dulls their father, but a more promising situation arises when Edwin arranges another date with Julia, another visitor, and her Dutch friend Anna.
The eighties can be seen as Palin's "middle years" between his Python years of the seventies and his reinvention as himself as a presenter of travel documentaries. These documentaries are highly popular, but I have always had mixed feelings about them. They are entertaining enough, but they seem to be a distraction away from what I have always seen as Palin's main gifts as a writer and actor. Not everything that he did in his middle years was a masterpiece- I have always regarded "A Fish Called Wanda" as overrated and "The Meaning of Life" did not add much to the Monty Python story- but these were also the years when he was involved with brilliantly original films like "The Missionary" and "A Private Function" and television programmes like "Ripping Yarns", all of which have a depth and originality not found in his travelogues.
"East of Ipswich" is another excellent production of this period. Although it contains plenty of humour, it is not a pure comedy like, say, "The Missionary" but rather a witty and engaging coming-of-age story. I am not old enough to remember the fifties- I wasn't even born then- but there was enough in my own experience of family holidays in the seventies for me to identify with young Richard. Apart fro "American Friends" from 1991, it seems s shame that Palin hans't really produced anything like this since. 8/10.